Who is in our network and what do they value?

[John Williams <johnfrombluff gmail com>]

Hi all

I have been following the discussion here (and elsewhere) about "what is
GNOME" and "Who are our customers (Target Markets)" for some time now.

I'm wondering if it's time for some new ways of thinking about these
questions.  Try this for size:

GNOME is a network organisation that interacts with other network
organisations.  GNOME is a bunch of companies and a bunch of individual
people who create software and services that enable ***people*** to
***interact*** with their ***computer***; and with other ***people***
and organisations through the ***medium*** of their computer.

(Sorry about the asterisks.  I feel a rant coming on...)

People use computers to create and maintain value for themselves. Also,
organisations use computers and software to create and maintain value
for themselves.  

How can GNOME enhance the value-creation processes of these people and
their networks?  And how can GNOME enhance the value-creation processes
of the network of people and organisations that is GNOME?

That's the big picture.  Perhaps it would be helpful to draw our network
as a directed graph in some public space?  I'm not sure we can do this
on the live.gnome.org wiki (other than creating our own graphs and
uploading them).  Does anyone know of some interactive "whiteboard" type
service (note: service, not software!  ;-) ... ) we could use for this?

peace and love,

John